Penetrating oil



Patented Sept. 1, 1936 UNITED STATES PENETRATING OIL Anderson W. Balaton, William 0. Pool, and James Harwood, Chicago, Ill., assignors to Amour and Company, Chicago, 111.,

Illinois a corporation of No Drawing. Application August 27, 1935,

Serlal No. 38,137

6 Claims.

This invention relates to penetrating oils and to processes of using the same and it comprises a penetrating oil in which the predominantly active constituent is an aliphaticnitrile containing six or more carbon atoms, and it further comprises processes of loosening adherent deposits on metallic surfaces by the application thereto of such penetrating oils.

There is a demand in the arts for liquids which 10 have the property of penetrating readily between 7 -metal surfaces in close contact, such as-the leaves of springs, hinges, bolts, and the like. The difficulties in loosening bolts which have rusted are well known. This layer or film of rust is so tenacious that very often it binds the adjacent metal surfaces so tightly that it is difficult, if not impossible, to loosen the bolt by the mere application of mechanical loosening devices such as a wrench Frequently door hinges develop squeekiness, due at least in part to the formation of thin films of rust between the moving parts of the hinge. And it is commonly necessary to lubricate the springs of an automobile by the application thereto of so-called penetrating oils. All of the oils which have been used for this purpose must have high penetrability. This means that the surface tension and viscosity of the oil should be somewhat lower than that of an ordinary lubricant used on rotating parts. A penetrating oil is one which has the ability to form a lubricating film between closely contacted metal parts. This is to be distinguished from oiliness in oil. Oiliness is the ability of the film to adhere to the metal once the film is formed.

gree by ordinary lubricating oils and in order to improve this characteristic various materials rather fugitive substances and they readily oxidize and decompose.

We have now discovered that a class of chemical compounds known as higher fatty acid nitriles have excellent properties of penetration and lubrication when applied to metallic surfaces. We find that these nitriles will readily penetrate rusted surfaces between bolts and hinges, for example, where ordinary lubricants fail to function. We are not prepared to state exactly whathappens when the penetrating oils of our invention are applied to rusted surfaces but we do believe that they function chemically in some way to loosen the bond between the particles of rust Penetration is not possessed to any decided deand the metal surface to which rust adheres tenaciously. Although there are many mineral lubricating oils of very low viscosity having some penetrability, many of these oils, after penetration, are not particularly efiectivefor the purpose 5 of loosening rusted surfaces. There is no reason for believing an ordinary mineral hydrocarbon would have any particular chemical reaction with the rust. on the other hand the nitriles of the present invention are rather active compounds 10 chemically and, although they may appear to be substantially inert with respect to a rusted surface, we believe that they do have some definite chemical reaction with the surface of the rusted particles so that any tenacious bond between the 15 metal and its coating of rust is loosened. In many respects this would seem to be analogous to the pickling and cleaning of metals wherein obscure chemical reactions do occur. We have further discovered that these aliphatic o nitriles are excellent carbon removers. They can, for instance, be sprayed on the layer of carbon deposit on the surface of the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, or the cylinders can be flushed with them. When the engine is theng5. started up, the carbon layer is loosened by the nitrile and blown out. An ordinary mineral oil, regardless of its viscosity, will not lessen such carbon deposits. Accordingly, we believe that the action or our materials must be something more 30 than a mere mechanical penetration or working in between metallic surfaces or carbon deposits on a cylinder wall.

In' its broad aspects, then, our invention relates to the use of the higher fatty acid nitriles, that is,

" nitriles containing at least six carbon atoms, for

the purpose of loosening adherent deposits on metallic surfaces, the deposits being of the nature of rust or carbon.

There are many nitriles coming within the scope of our invention. All of them are free flowing liquids of low viscosity. These nitriles are, customarily made from fatty acids by reacting the fatty acids with ammonia in the presence of a dehydrating catalyst. Thus stearonitrile and palmitonitrile are nitriles corresponding to stearic and palmitic acids. Nitriles corresponding to the other higher fatty acids can be prepared in like manner and. used in our invention. For example, we can use nitriles prepared from capric, caprylic, lauric, myristic and the unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic. We can also use products obtained by pyrolytically cracking higher fatty acid nitriles such as stearoand palmitonitrile. These cracked prod- 55 t 355 c. so

' eifect. In a similar pnetrabllity of all nets are mostly lower molecular weight fatty acid nitriles, both saturated and unsaturated, and which boil from 40 0. to as high as 360%. In manyinstances the cracked nitriles are associated with quantities of hydrocarbons which are also productsof the cracking reaction Methods of preparing these cracked nitriles are described in the copending applications Y Serial Numbers 9,660 and 11,348 filed by us, now Patents 1 and 2,033,537, These methods involveheating nitriles, such as stearonitrile, at a temperature of about 550 C. with or without a catalyst and either at ordinary or elevated pressures.

As stated above, in broad aspects our invention nitrile materials for the purpose stated. For example, we prepare a comprises the use of these 'po'se'd oft-he nitriles from lard. fatty acids. In making this mixture we convert the lard fatty a'cidsto their corresponding nitriles in ways well oleic acid. It

boiling point range is about 320 C. Similarly a mixture of nitriles consisting of the composition of this mixture-is not known but'w'e do know that" it contains nitriles having from seyento twelve carbon tu'res are described in the copending applications atoms. Such nitrile mixreferred to above.- a

We have also discovered that these: nitriles-can be added to and dissolved in lubricating oils'with advantage. Thus, when'we add one part of the manner we can improve the of the common mineral oils used for lubricating purposes. "I'hese oils can range in viscosity from a number SAE to a 30 cult to inbrease'their penetrability characteristics except at theexpense of adding very large stearonitrile and about 10 parts f a mineral lubricating oil Any of the above-described nitriles, ormi'xtures thereof, or the cracked nitriles,,.can be comto ZOpercent 'of the min-' pounded with mineral lubricating oils to give oils I of superior penetrability .and loosening eflect. "m

number SAE r I One very advantageous mixture will contain about. 80 parts by volume of a I lubricating oil, about 10 parts by volume of by volume of over wide limits, so that the mineral oil contains lywe can, replace the steam and palmitonitrile with the cracked nitriles described above. Thus our oil can contain from 5 to 20 percent of cracked n'itrile's'having from sixto twelve carbon atoms. V

As stated, we do not ordinarilyincorporate our nitriles in lubricating greases; We can, however, improve the lubricating properties of) greases as regards their penetrability by adding our nitriles thereto andwe do not pended claims to be limited to highly fluid products. We can, for example, addfrom 5 to percent of the above nitriles, or mixtures thereof, to a mineral lubricating grease. This will increase the penetra'bility of the grease and improve its lubricant film-'ijorming "properties considerably. Such uses are indicated in greases for gear lubri- -cation,'spri ng shackles and the like.

- Having thus described our invention what we claim is:

1 Asa new composition oi matter, a mixture of a mineral lubricant and an aliphatic nitrile having at least six carbon atoms.

2; As anew composition of matter, a mixture of "a mineral lubricant and a mixture of aliphatic nitriles'h'aving at least six carbon atoms.

3. As a 'new composition of matter, a mixture of a mineral lubricatingoil, stearo nitrile, and palmito nitrile. 4. As a new composition 5. A penetrating oil including a mixture of aliphatic nitriles having atleast six carbon atoms.- 6'.-A penetrating oil including a mixture of steam and palmitonitrile.

ANDERSON w. fiALs'roN.

, o. POOL. JAMES HARWOOD. 7

These quantities can be varied I; a percent of stearonitrile alone, or I I admixtures thereof with palmitonitrile. Similar- 

